The dog ate their Chinese food, so a 20-year-old man and his girlfriend decided to order a pizza but couldn't pay for it.

The solution: Rob the pizza delivery man of the pizza.

Now, eight months later, Christopher Fields of Ridgeland has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for robbery and assault. The assault is for hitting the delivery man in the face with the BB gun he used as a weapon after the delivery man apparently tried to keep Fields from getting the pizza.

Fields had never been in any trouble before. Fields’ girlfriend was charged with a lesser offense and is expected to be placed on a non-adjudicated status and given a five-year suspended sentence.

Madison County Circuit Judge William Chapman sentenced Fields this week to 18 years to serve on the armed robbery count and seven years to serve on the assault charge. The sentences will run consecutively, meaning one after the other.

Assistant District Attorney Bryan Buckley said a carjacking charge was dismissed against Fields. Buckley said there must be consequences for Fields' action. He said the pizza delivery driver didn't know the weapon was a BB gun.

“You had a point not to do this and you chose to do it,” Chapman told Fields. “You could have said no.”

Fields said the only thing he took was the pizza.

Chapman said, while Fields only had a BB gun, he agreed with Buckley that there was no way for the victim to tell the gun wasn't real. Chapman said some BB guns looks exactly like real guns.

“It’s not a good feeling to send a young man to prison,” Chapman said.

The judge said he didn’t want the message to get out in Madison and Rankin counties that a person will receive a lesser sentence if a fake or BB gun is used. He said Fields may be a good person, but good people do bad things at times.

Fields' attorney, Randy Harris, said Fields wanted the pizza and took off with it. He said that action was out of character for his client who had never been in any kind of trouble prior to the incident.

“It was so out of character for him to do something like this,” Harris said. “His parents don’t know what got into him.”